CropLogic of New Zealand is fulfilling a promise made last July by announcing the appointment of Novus Capital as lead manager on of an anticipated initial public offering (IPO) in Australia which could value the agritech start-up at roughly NZD 10.70 million (USD 7.49 million.

PowerHouse Ventures and a New Zealand Crown Research Institute founded the business in 2010 to target the global crop irrigation market, potentially worth NZD 3.10 billion a year, according to the intellectual property owner’s website.

The Christchurch-based group uses low-powered wireless networks and satellite systems to collect field sensor and climate data, and aerial images - ranging from soil to sunlight - before adding the information to its cloud software.

It sends the results as predictive irrigation and fertiliser decisions to farmers who can then accurately control input to improve forecasts, schedules and machinery instructions.

CropLogic has an exclusive licence for the potato model of the New Zealand Crown Research Institute’s Plant & Food Research, and has conducted successful trials of its system in China, the US, Australia and at home with PepsiCo, Lamb Weston, Simplot and McCain Foods.

The company is on the verge of trying out its software model in other commodities, such as onions, corn, wheat, soybean and cotton to improve future productivity against a background of higher input costs, water restrictions and more marginal land.

It noted agricultural output needs to increase by 70.0 per cent to meet demands of a global population expected to reach 9.50 billion people by 2050.

CropLogic, in which PowerHouse owns 31.3 per cent, New Zealand Ventures Investment 17.5 per cent and management 16.4 per cent, has already carried out two successful fundraisers ahead of its proposed listing on the Australian Securities Exchange later this year.

The group announced plans to go public at the same time as fetching NZD 512,200 via crowdfunding platform Equitise in July 2016.